From Idea to Ad
How does a political idea become transformed into a thirty second message?
Here you can explore the step by step creation of an ad campaign. The classic
1952 "Eisenhower Answers America" campaign can be examined with
the help of artifacts from the Rosser Reeves Collection at the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin. It's the original political TV ad campaign, and almost
five decades later the step by step process is still very much the same.

THE CONSULTANT
Today's modern political consultant is a specialized hybrid of advertiser
and politician; a political communications expert who may advise a client
on a number of ways to communicate with the public. But in the early days
of television there were just politicians and ad men.

One of the best ad men was Rosser Reeves. He'd made a name for himself creating
campaigns for big clients like Anacin, Colgate, and M&M's. Famous for catchy
slogans like "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands," Reeves was approached
by a group of Texas business men to come up with a Republican slogan to compete
with the Democrats' "You Never Had It So Good." Instead of a mere slogan,
Reeves pitched an entire campaign. Republican presidential candidate Dwight
Eisenhower would speak to voters' chief concerns in a series of short television
"spots" airing shortly before the November election. "Eisenhower
Answers America" was just underway.

THE
RESEARCH
To win an election a candidate must do two things: Develop a message that
resonates with voters; and deliver that message. Today, using sophisticated
polling and focus group testing, politicians can carefully shape the messages
they put out to voters to maximize public acceptance. And detailed knowledge
of when certain kinds of voters will be watching TV lets the politician target
particular constituents.

In 1952, Rosser Reeves did not commission any special poll to create "Eisenhower
Answers America." He simply asked pollster George Gallup for Americans' chief
concern. Gallup responded that Washington corruption, the cost of living,
and the conflict in Korea topped the list, and Reeves went about shaping ads
on those themes. While today, thirty second ads for candidates are taken as
a given, in 1952 the Eisenhower campaign needed convincing to use television
advertising. Reeves had a colleague prepare a report spelling out the advantages.

In the early days of television, companies who wanted to advertise often paid
for an entire program. That show would carry the company's name and would
only carry the company's ads. Shows like "Camel News Caravan" and "Texaco
Star Theater" are famous examples. But Rosser Reeves figured out that if you
place your ads between programs you reach the audience built by popular shows
at a fraction of the cost. These short advertisements came to be known as
"spots" and to be effective had to be brief and memorable. Reeves
was a master of the form. Up to this point, most campaigning on television
was limited to buying airtime to broadcast speeches. In fact, Democratic opponent
Adlai Stevenson's television spending was already committed to speeches. Reeves
had spoken to people who'd listened to Eisenhower's speeches and found they
retained little of what he'd said. The research report argued that spot advertising
should be adapted to the Eisenhower campaign and called for an intensive airing
of the spots in the three weeks prior to the election.

THE
SCRIPT
While a few political ads adopt a documentary approach, most start with a
script. The script is the initial effort to distill political concepts into
an understandable, even dramatic, presentation.

Rosser Reeves, through his work on spot advertising, was well prepared for
this distillation process. His secret was strict adherence to what he called
the "Unique Selling Proposition." USP, as it was called, was a single
quality of a product that let it stand out against competition. M&M's were
unlike all those messy candies that would melt in your hands, for example.
Through repetition, the particular identified quality would stay in consumers'
heads when it was time to buy. Reeves took this single-mindedness to the Eisenhower
campaign.

While he would have preferred just one theme to build the ads around, Reeves
took the three concerns identified by Gallup (Korea, corruption, and cost
of living) and wrote a series of scripts. None of the short spots would deal
with more than one topic, each of them consisting of a single question asked
of Eisenhower by a "typical" voter. The candidate's responses were
culled carefully by Reeve's reading Eisenhower's many campaign speeches. So,
in essence, the message of the candidate matches the rest of the campaign,
but the spot presents that message in a simplified, memorable form.

THE
SHOOTING
Shooting a political ad starts the transformation of ideas into images. To
keep viewers engaged, television advertising needs to communicate visually.
Slogans and scripted words work only on one level of perception. Think of
how often you see a flag in political ads. Here the candidate wants to build
associations between him or herself and the patriotic feelings brought on
by waving the flag. But this is only the most obvious example.

For "Eisenhower Answers America," Rosser Reeves filmed Eisenhower in an empty
studio. Visually there is very little to distract viewers, no flags or symbols
of power. But Eisenhower is filmed from a slightly low angle, meaning we look
up at him. The voters asking questions are filmed looking up as though addressing
someone of enormous stature. Eisenhower is always seen alone, he doesn't share
the frame with his questioners. In fact, the questioners never actually spoke
with Ike, they were filmed later. Reeves recruited tourists at Radio City
Music Hall and had them ask scripted questions in the studio a few days after
Eisenhower was filmed.

While some Republican leaders worried that appearing in a commercial would
diminish Eisenhower's stature, in the ad his stature is visually enhanced.
At the same time the candidate is seen relating to everyday people, and offering
memorable solutions to their problems. At times, however, Eisenhower seems
a little wide-eyed and unfocused, probably because Reeves didn't want him
to wear his glasses and he is struggling to make out large cue cards. Ike
is said to have moaned, "To think an old soldier should come to this..."

THE
FINANCING
Today, paying for ads often takes the better part of a candidate's budget.
Supporters of campaign finance reform point to the high cost of television
advertising as a principle factor in driving up campaign spending. Some advocate
letting candidates have free television time to address voters, but some consultants
feel this would put limits on how a candidate can deliver his message.

Rosser Reeves knew the "Eisenhower Answers America" campaign would be
expensive. In fact, one research report was entitled "A $2,000,000 Campaign
to Ensure an Eisenhower Victory." To help pay to place the ads on television
stations, the Eisenhower campaign turned to local committees in the key states
needed for a victory and asked them to raise money to air the ads in their
local markets.

THE
AD BUY
Ad buying is a full-time job on many campaigns these days. With multiples
channels to select from, a buyer can consult detailed information on which
programs appeal to which voters. Then the buyer can tailor a strategy designed
to reach particular voters with a particular message.

The strategy in the "Eisenhower Answers America" campaign was described as
a blitz; multiple airings in the three weeks before the election. The appeal
was designed to be as broad as possible, but airing of the spots was particularly
concentrated in states where the race was close.

THE
RESULTS
The "Eisenhower Answers America" campaign received much attention and stirred
some controversy. Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson attacked it as showing
"contempt for the intelligence of the American people." But even Stevenson
saw that political commercials would become standard campaign fare. When he
ran again in 1956, it was a priority to land a firm to handle his ads, something
that proved hard to do on Republican-dominated Madison Avenue.

In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower would have easily won the election even without
political commercials. In fact, some believe it was not until Nelson Rockefeller's
1966 New York Governor's race that a television spot campaign could be credited
as a major factor in an election. "Eisenhower Answers America" did, however,
demonstrate on a national scale that television would change America's political
campaigns. And it provided a model of production that is useful to this day.